so I I I drove home at like 6:25. I said to my wife, I need you to just change my shirt. And I got home and discovered
that my trousers were split from top to bottom. you might say. And my wife says,
“You better not bend over today.” I said, “I thought I had some good air conditioning today.” But she says, “If you walk up that platform, they’re all
going to look at you.” And uh so I decided I’ll change into my only functional pair of uh track here this
evening. And so I don’t normally preach in jeans, but there is a a very practical reason why this is happening tonight.
And um so these things have at least I discovered it before I stood up here.
All right. All right. That’s a good thing or you’ll be accusing me of clergy abuse or something.
So um tonight we’re going to be looking at the topic of the Elijah message and uh its significance for us today. I’ve
entitled the message Elijah and the end times. And that’s going to be our journey. We’re going to look first at the promise of Elijah in Malachi chapter
4. We’re then going to look at the first advent Elijah figure and then we’re going to look at the end time Elijah figure. So that’s going to be our
journey tonight and I pray that you know as we go through this journey that God will speak to each of our hearts. Uh so as we begin invite you to bow your heads
once again and we invite the presence of God’s holy spirit.
Dear heavenly father we thank you for the blessings of this Sabbath day. Lord what a feast it’s been in so many ways.
Lord the fellowship has been precious and sweet. Lord, to meet with like-minded brothers and sisters from all across the states who are convicted
and converted and who are working for the coming of Jesus Christ. Lord, what a joy today has been. Lord, it’s been a foretaste of heaven above and the
wedding supper of the lamb because today, Lord, we’ve had people from every nation, tribe, language, and people.
We’ve had people from east and from west gathered in the fellowship hall down the hill there. And Lord, we’ve experienced heaven today.
Lord, as we uh come to close these Sabbath hours and we as the this convention draws to a close, Father, I’m asking that you will speak to us one
more time, Lord, uh still the voices of the world out there.
Lord, we uh we’re going to our homes tomorrow. And you know what we’re going to face,
whether it’s good or bad or ugly, you know what we’re going home to. And we’re asking tonight, Lord, for one more refreshing, one pour out, one more
outpouring, one more hearing and convicting by your spirit upon our hearts and minds. Father, we would be in
the center of your will. Father, we would be doing what you call us to do.
Father, we would be about our heavenly father’s business. Father, we want to use our gifts um for your honor and for your glory alone. Father, we want the
fruit of the spirit in our characters and no more the work of the flesh. So,
Father, as I speak, may your words be taken from your throne of grace. Father,
hide me behind your rock. I pray that you will watch over my lips and watch over my heart tonight. And Lord, may you be glorified in all that is said and
done, both here in this hall and among those who are watching online. Thank you, Father, for hearing and for answering this prayer. We ask in the
powerful name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Amen. All right. So, you know, you’re getting old when when you start to see if I can get this up a bit higher.
That’s better. My father was um a preacher.
He announced once in the pulpit that he couldn’t read his sermon because his lens were now bisexual and he actually meant by focal.
And so I I learned from that moment that it’s it’s always good to have your notes at the right level, you know, cuz if
they if they’re if they’re not quite right, some strange things are going to come out.
All right. So, the promise of the Elijah and the Elijah figure. So, we’re going to we’re going to get straight into it
this evening. We’re going to first look at at the promise of Elijah in in the Old Testament and uh in Malachi chapter 4. Then we’re going to look at the first
Advent Elijah figure and then the end time Elijah figure. So we’re going to be looking first at Malachi chapter 4. If you have your Bibles with you, we’re
going to look initially at Malachi chapter 4 for a few moments together. Um I put the text on the screen because some people they learn by by seeing.
Other people learn by hearing. And so um some people, you know, our hands aren’t as quick as they used to be. Some of us are holding babies in our hands. So we
put the words on the screen. And if you want to follow in your Bibles, then praise the Lord. So this is what we read in Malachi 4 and verse one. It says
there, “See or behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be
stubble. The day that comes shall burn them up, sayith the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”
Neither root nor branch. Now just keep your minds on those two words in red on the screen, root nor branch. We’re going to come back to those in a few seconds
time. and the Israelites that the book of Malachi is written to the people of Israel. It’s the last book of the Old Testament. And there’s a problem in the among God’s people. On the one hand, you
have the priests who are not doing their jobs properly. And they’re not teaching the people the law of God. And the people are not doing what is right when
it comes to the sacrifices. And on the other hand, you’ve got the people of God who are kind of asking questions about God. And one of them is where is the God
of justice? We see the priests aren’t doing their jobs and we’re not returning our tithes. And where is the God of justice in the land of Israel today? And
the people of Israel were kind, you might say, they were starting to scoff.
Like we have the law and we have the priests, but none of this seems to be working for us. And in the last days,
we’re also going to have scoffers. We read in 2 Peter 3:3-4. It says there on the screen, first of all, you must understand this. And in the last days,
which days, brothers and sisters? And are we in those last days today?
Absolutely. In the last days, scoffers will come scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?”
And we see this in the streets of our nation today. You know, your sexual orientation, your gender identity, and so forth. Um, here we we read that in
the last days there is going to be an upsurge of people who indulging their fallen lusts and saying, “Where is the promise of the coming of Jesus Christ?”
Where is the promise indeed of the coming of Jesus? And in this passage of Malachi chapter 4, God assures both ancient Israel and modern man today that there is a final judgment.
And if you go back to that verse there,
neither there’ll be neither root nor branch. In this verse here, root is referring to Satan as the cause of all evil. And branch is referring to those
who are the followers of Satan. That there is coming a day of judgment when both Satan will be destroyed as the source of all evil. And all those who
follow Satan by default or intentionally whether it doesn’t matter either way those who follow Satan the branches from his root they are going to be completely
destroyed. And I say amen and amen to that. And so the second verse of Malachi 4 says this. But for you who revere my
name the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its and I put in parenthesis his wings there. You shall
go out leaping like calves from the stall. Has any of you ever farmed animals?
Have you ever put your um animals in the winter quarters and then you let them out in the spring?
It’s like they go giddy with excitement.
Just giddy with excitement. And in the pits of Wales, they used to the down they used to take these um pit ponies.
They would be down in the pits Monday through Sabbath hauling the coal deep in the deep um the deep um pits of Wales all through the 18th and 19th centuries.
And on Sundays they brought those pit ponies up to the pit head. And the pit ponies came up hundreds and hundreds of feet from the pitch black darkness. And
then they were let out into a little valley area. And those ponies went crazy with excitement because they knew what was about to happen. They were going to
be set free from their their their labors underground working the mines there. And uh they were going to be like leaping like calves from the soil from
the store. It’s a beautiful agricultural picture that we have here. So what exactly is this son of righteousness who’s going to rise with healing in its
or healing in his wings? Well, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” In John 8:12 and Jeremiah 23:6, you can parallel these two passages says this.
In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which we he will be called
the Lord is our righteousness. In Hebrew, it’s Yahweh Sid Canu. The Lord our righteousness. And so you have the promise that Jesus will be the light of
the world and you have the promise that that God will bring safety to his people and he will bring it about through Jehovah our righteousness, the Lord our
righteousness. It’s a beautiful promise of what Christ is going to do. Christ is that son of righteousness. And Cy White writes about this on in Desire of Ages
page 261. He he will bring light to all humanity in his first coming and at his second coming. And this is what she writes. She says, “The son of
righteousness did not burst upon the world in splendor to dazzle the senses with his glory. It is written of Christ.
His going forth is prepared as the morning. Quietly and gently the daylight breaks upon the earth, dispelling the shadow of darkness and waking the world
to life. So did the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” And when the son of righteousness rises with
healing in his wings, the redeemed rejoice at the God’s justice, at God’s judgment, at God’s vindication, at God’s healing, and his second coming promises.
And I shared the other night now how,
you know, how a lady said, “I’m going to pray for your back.” And my back I have had no pain in the last three or four months. It’s just like, “Praise the Lord for that.” Like, you know, what a smile
it brings to my face to talk about the son of righteousness rose with healing in his wings in my life. Like, this is amazing. You know, I maybe you’ve heard this story before. I sat out of my bed.
I was my 40th birthday. I sat up and at 40th birthday, I thought, “Oh, no. 40th birthday. This is terrible.” And and I swivel sat right in swivel right in the
bed and put my both my feet down and my right heel felt like it was treading on a on a nail. Some of you know what it is.
Yeah. Yeah. And I And I I I never heard of this problem before. And I kind of tried to walk on it and it felt like someone was tearing the sole of my feet
apart. So I kind of hopped into the restroom and I sat down and I went to Google and I said stabbing pain under my right heel. What is it?
And WebMD told me that it’s plantto fasciitis and it said this is an ailment that particularly affects men particularly aged 40 and above.
And I thought remarkable accuracy, remarkable.
And so I did a quick web search like what ailments affect men aed 40 and above. And it was so depressing I put the phone down real quick.
But about 6 months later, I was hobbling around and um a missionary in in Southeast Asia, she saw me and she said,
“Brother Vine,” she says, “sou got a problem. I know what your problem is.” And she says, “Just give me your foot.”
So I gave her my foot and she tied some tape from the heel all the way up to the the front to the big toe and some tape, medical tape around. And she says,
“You’re going to be fine.” And it never come back again. Just like praise the Lord. And again, the joy on my face when
somebody heals you and you know you don’t have plantto fasciitis and you don’t have back pain anymore. No, we serve a God who heals. Sometimes he
heals through human agents and sometimes he heals directly through miraculous intervention. But we serve a God who heals. And if God has healed you, tell
your brothers and sisters, testify in church of God’s goodness to you. Because if you’ve beaten cancer or if you’ve beaten something else, there’s somebody in the church who’s about to go through
that valley. and they need to be encouraged. Their faith needs to be strengthened. Their backbone needs to be stiffened. So they know that the son of righteousness rises with healing in his wings. So he’s not only a healing God.
And it says, “And you shall tread down the wicked, for there shall be ashes under the souls of your feet on the day when I act, sayeth the Lord of hosts.”
So we have here a picture that the righteous are finally victorious over the wicked. And I say amen and amen.
And then you come kind of zoom kind of to zoom zoom in on what we’re really going to talk about. Malachi 4:4.
Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb in Israel.
So Malachi closes his prophecy with an admonition to God’s people to remember God,
to be faithful to God. And that word remember in red zakar is the same word that you find in the fourth commandment.
It’s a hint that this end time message isn’t just about the commandments of God. It’s about the fourth commandment
of God. Remember the teaching of my servant Moses. And that verb is that imperative is the same as in Exodus
20:8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. So there’s a clue already in the text that there’s something about
the law of God at the end of time. So Malachi um admonishes the people to be obedient to God. You know, human
obedience precedes divine blessing. The law of God will always play a significant role in the final events leading up to the final day of the Lord.
But we are commanded here to remember the teachings of Moses, the statutes and ordinances that God gave him at Mount Horeb.
So we are to uphold the law of God and in particular the veracity and validity of the fourth commandment.
The text goes on to say, “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts
of children to their parents so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.”
So this is like this is describes what the prophet Elijah is going to do before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. Now based on this prophecy the
discip the Jews expected the prophet Elijah was going to physically return from heaven just before the arrival of the Messiah. And so they they thought
John the Baptist maybe he was going to be Elijah. And you see on the screen there, John 1:29, when John the Baptist is out preaching and calling for a
baptism of repentance, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Jewish leaders, it says John 1:21 says, “They asked him,
“What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” They expected Elijah was going to come down from heaven materially, physically, the Elijah we
heard about the other night when he went up to heaven on the fiery chariot in 2 Kings 2, they expected Elijah was going to come down again. And when Jesus asked
the far the the 12 disciples in Matthew 16, he said, “Who do people say that the son of man is?” And they said, “Some say
John the Baptist because he’d just been beheaded, but others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
And so the Jews expected Elijah to materially and physically return from heaven to announce and prepare the way of the Messiah. And what would this Messiah figure preach? Well, literally,
the text says, “He shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons and the hearts of the sons to the fathers.”
It’s easy to father a child.
It’s far harder to be a father to a child.
And part of the Elijah message is to turn the hearts of the fathers from their careers and their toys and their
fallen desires and to recognize that God has given them sons and they are responsible for raising them in the fear of God.
Part of the Elijah message is to turn the hearts of the fathers so I don’t just father you and let your mother raise you is to say I’m going to be an active father figure in the life of this young boy. And boys need father figures.
If boys don’t have healthy, spiritually mature fathers in their lives, they find they find other father figures in the
gangs or in the military or in some other or in sports. But boys will find a father figure of one way or another. And
if you want to destroy a young man, take away a healthy father figure from his life. And when young men have a father figure in their life, a loving but firm father, the chances that boy, you know,
um, dropping out of school, going to prison, getting into drugs, falling into bad habits, joining a gang, the chances of all that negative stuff happening
drops dramatically when the father’s hearts are turned towards their children. So, if you are a father tonight, you didn’t just you didn’t just
father a child, God is calling you to be a father, a god-fearing father to that child. And the the text says
he will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents. We say, you know, in America, we talk about, you know, family and motherhood and apple pie and all that, but for many children,
home is a place of terror.
For many children, home is not a peaceful place. when I was at the the village um school on the board there, I noticed and we all noticed that the days
when the children ate the most on the on the school meal program was Friday and Monday. On Friday they were stocking up for a lean weekend and on Monday they were catching up from a lean weekend.
Not enough food. Even in Berian Springs,
yes, kids go to bed hungry at night. And we discovered that that some of those kids come in and you know there’s abuse going on, but it’s hard to actually pin
put your finger on it. But you know that something’s not going right.
And so for many children today, what a blessing it would be if the hearts of their fathers were turned towards the children’s spiritual and material well-being.
And maybe God is calling us today as fathers not just to have children, but to rear children. Amen.
To be a father, to spend time with, to model for your children what God wants that child to be. and to be the example
for your children of what it means to be a man of God, a man of your word, a man of integrity, a man of compassion, and a man of courage.
And so God says that the the Miss Elijah message will turn the hearts of the parents, their children. And because of that, the hearts of the children will be turned once again to their parents.
Children are resilient and they do respond to positive love.
They do respond to positive love. And so the foundation of a strong society and the foundation of God’s people at the end of time are strong, coherent,
God-fearing families. And so the Elijah figure who will come would both refute and rebuke Satan’s attacks on the family that is on the family that is designed to destroy society. And in so doing,
he’s going to uphold the fifth commandment. And by extension, he’s going to uphold the entire ten commandments, the decalogue. As we’ve already seen earlier in this chapter
verse um verse four, remember the teachings of my servant Moses, it takes us all the way back to the fourth commandment in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 8.
The Elijah figure that was promised was going to call for renewed worship and obedience to the creator before the
first coming of the Messiah and the second coming of the Messiah. His would be a call for repentance, for renewal,
for repairing the breaches and restoring the old paths as God says to thy would not come and strike the land with a curse. And so this prophecy of the
Elijah figure ends with a warning from God. Unless God’s people returns to the true worship of the creator and obedience to the ten commandments, they
will be counted among the wicked on the day of the Lord.
It’s a strong message that membership membership of the church is not an automatic passport to heaven.
And membership in a god-fearing family is not an automatic passport to heaven either. You are not saved because your wife is godly, your husband is godly,
your parents are godly. You are saved when you are born again.
And you cannot rely on the righteousness or the goodness or the Christian walk of your close relatives to somehow be caught up in their coattails and swept
into heaven with them. Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And so then he’s then there is a
call here for a personal conversion experience, a personal renewal of our walk with God, a personal turning away
from sin and a turning to God and saying as I turn to God, so that’s going to transform my relationships with my spouse, with my sons, with my daughters,
etc. with my parents that as we turn to God in re in worship and renewal that automatically needs leads to renewed relationships with those nearest and dearest to us.
So this is the prophesied figure. But what actually happened?
Well, let’s look at the first ad first advent Elijah figure here for a moment.
So remember the Jews anticipated Elijah would literally return from heaven and the the uh the disciples shared in
that same belief when Jesus came down from the mount of transfiguration and they’ve just seen Elijah and Moses next to Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. The disciples say to
Jesus, why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? So even the disciples were buying into the idea that
Elijah must physically return before the Messiah is to come. But God had other ideas because when we look at what the
angel Gabriel announced to Zachariah in the temple before the birth of John the Baptist, this is what the angel Gabriel said. It said, “He will turn many of the
people of Israel to the Lord their God with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will go before him to turn the hearts of parents to their children and the
disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
And so he’s almost kind of paraphrasing Malachi chapter 4 here. And so the son of of Zachariah the priest is going to
go in the spirit and power of Elijah and he’s going to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the
righteous. So John the Baptist was to be the Elijah figure, not the literal coming down of Elijah from heaven above,
but John the Baptist was going to be the fulfillment of the first advent of Christ, of the coming of this Elijah figure who is going to prepare the
people of God for the arrival of the Messiah.
He will turn the hearts of many of the people of God to the Lord their God. Now that means repentance.
John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance. We read that in Mark 1:4 that John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
And he wasn’t the only guy to do this.
When we see um we see in Matthew 3:2, he said, “Repent for the kingdom of God has come near.” And when Jesus started preaching, he had the same message.
Matthew 4:17, it says, “From that time on, Jesus began to proclaim, repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” So
John’s was a baptism of repentance. It wasn’t baptism in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. That comes later at the end of Matthew’s gospel.
But when John the Baptist comes, it is a baptism of repentance. And what does repentance mean? The verb metanino means that I’m walking in this direction. I
won’t go too far because the people on the cameras won’t like me. And then you turn around and you walk in exactly the opposite direction. Repentance isn’t
just a change of mind. It’s walking in the entirely opposite direction.
It means that the direction of my life is changing. The way of my life is changing. The habits of my life are changing. The things I used to walk
towards, I’m now walking away from those things. And I’m not going to walk towards those flesh pots of sin that may have attracted me in the past. I’m
walking towards God and his holy character. And so repentance is is what John the Baptist proclaimed. And repentance is what Jesus proclaimed as
well. And when the disciples preached at Pentecost, what must we do to be saved?
Acts 238 and 39. First words from Peter were repent.
Now hear me now. In a modern society, if you say that something’s doing something wrong, that’s a microaggression.
If you’re a student on a modern American campus, which is a safe space, which means nothing’s allowed to question your sense of who you are. Nothing’s allowed
to suggest that anything is wrong in your life. If I identify as a penguin,
nothing on that campus is allowed to say that I’m not a penguin. Now that may be an extreme example. We’ll just go with flamingos for now,
shall we? So in our modern college campuses, when your college when you know your state university says this is a safe place,
everybody we Christians say that sounds nice. It’s a safe place. No, this is ideological language that says if that 18-year-old man believes that he’s a penguin,
then nothing on that campus can be allowed to question whether he’s a penguin or not. And you can’t have any Christian speakers who come onto campus to question whether he’s a penguin
either. So the the the purpose so the the net effect of having a safe space is that the gospel gets shut down. Why?
Because the first words of John the Baptist, the first words of Jesus and the first words of the apostles at Pentecost were repent. And repentance
means not everything in your life is in harmony with the will of God. And these days if you say not everything in your life is in harmony with the will of God,
that’s hate speech. That’s a microaggression. you’re this phobic or that phobic or the other phobic and you need to be cancelled and banned from the college campuses or even from the bullpits these days.
So the the entire gospel proclamation is to be shut down in modern day America because it says that something’s not quite right with your life.
And this idea of repentance goes back to Mount Carmel. When Elijah spoke to the Israelites on Mount Carmel in First Kings 18:37,
he said, “Answer me, O Lord. Answer me so that this people may know you, oh Lord our God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”
Hallelujah. And so that message of repentance goes all the way back to the very first Elijah that you will turn their hearts, return their hearts so
they will know that you are the God, you are the God of Israel. And so when we talk about the Elijah message, there’s an essential continuity that goes from
Mount Carmel all the way to John the Baptist through to Christ and then to the apostles at Pentecost. It’s a message of repentance from sin.
And if you’ve come here to this weekend,
praise the Lord, but you’re struggling with a private or an unconfessed or a cherished or a beloved or a secret sin.
And the Holy Spirit is speaking to you now about that. Don’t harden your heart.
Listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
He’s winning you and wooing you for eternity. Eternity is on the line. Don’t give up eternity, a shot at eternal life because you like watching X, Y, or Z.
Don’t trade in eternity for a bowl of earthly pottage. Turn away from that. Cherish sin today.
And if the Holy Spirit is spirit is speaking to you right now, listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit speaks to you and convicts you of sin, he brings hope in your heart that
there is a sinner loving and a sin bearing savior.
And he’s coming again for those who love him and are eagerly waiting for him.
And so the message of of John the Baptist is a continuation of Elijah on Mount Carmel that turned their hearts back and it’s a message that Jesus
proclaimed and it’s also a message that um that the that the apostles proclaimed. So if we I like you know I like putting things in charts. All
right. So I’m going to put some charts up here and you may want to take pictures. I’m not going to go through all these texts here because I’m going to do the comparison between the
original Elijah and the first Elijah figure that was John the Baptist. And there’s a bunch of dimensions here we’re going to go through pretty quickly.
Okay? So, um I’m just going to read the stuff on the right and you can read the stuff on the left. Okay? Uh for the sake of time here. So, John the Baptist like
Elijah, he had a bold message. He condemned a king for breaking the seventh commandment just as a um Elijah
condemned Ahab for breaking the first and the second commandments. John the Baptist, the first Elijah figure, he called Israel to repentance and he
announced the arrival of the Lord. And the first Elijah called Israel to repentance and he announced a drought.
The John the Baptist uh the Elijah figure, he pointed people to Jesus as the lamb of God. Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
And Elijah in First Kings 18:36 and 39 on Mount Carmel, he called people to the worship of Yahweh who is Jesus Christ.
Then you see John the Baptist was called by Jesus Christ in Matthew 11:11. He was the greatest of the prophets and Elijah
was c was in first kings 18:36 a true prophet. John the Baptist he preached and called for true worship in Mark 1:2
verses 2 and 4. And the original Elijah himself he restored the true worship of the Lord that is Jesus Christ in the showdown on Mount Carmel in first kings
chapter 18. John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance in Matthew 3:5 and 6. And Elijah when he went down through
the waters of the river Jordan, he also upheld the principle of a baptism of repentance in 2 Kings 2 and verse 6. Uh
John the Baptist prepared the way for the Lord in first in Luke Luke 3:4. And Elijah, he ran before the king that was Ahab as after the showdown on Mount
Carmel. uh John the Baptist he he um he chose chose truth that is Jesus Christ and his worship um or over a lie that is
the false messiahs or the cold institutional religion of the Sadducees,
Pharisees and scribes and the original Elijah himself he called Israel to choose choose you this day whom you will
serve Jehovah or Baal and if Jehovah be God worship him and if Baal be God worship him so they both invited God’s
people to make a choice you either worship Jehovah or Baal or you or we point to Jesus Christ as the Messiah or you keep your cold, lifeless, sterile
liturggical religion in the temple. And that was the choice that John the Baptist gave God’s people. They both prayed for rain. Elijah prayed for rain in first Kings 18:36-38.
He prayed for literal rain um to end the drought. And John the Baptist, he prophesied about the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit in the early reign and the latter rain in Matthew 3:11. We’re speaking of Jesus. He says, “He will baptize you with the what?” With the
Holy Spirit and with fire. John the Baptist, he sparked a revival and a reformation among God’s people. Mark 1:4-5, the crowds came down from
Jerusalem and the cities of Judea, and they were baptized in the River Jordan.
The Roman soldiers, he says, if if if you if um um if don’t don’t don’t be unjust in your treatment of of the Jews
who you’re ruling. And he said to the Jewish people, if a Roman soldier compels you to carry his baggage a mile,
which was the legal limit that he could be compelled to carry, he says, carry his baggage a second mile and win his heart with love and kindness. And
Elijah, he sparked revival and reformation on the top of Mount Carmel. The people said, “The Lord, he is God.”
And they chose for God, and they wiped out the prophets of Baal and Ashareth.
John the Baptist was persecuted by a woman, Herodiius. She asked for his head and she received his head. Elijah was persecuted by a woman. Her name was
Jezebel. John the Baptist was under a death sentence from a king called Herod.
Mark 6:27. And Elijah himself was also under a death sentence from a king from Jezebel. That is in first kings 19:2
after which he fled into the wilderness and gave up his prophetic calling um if only for a few days there in the wilderness. John the Baptist he
discipled young men some of whom became the followers of Jesus Christ. Andrew and John, they were following John the Baptist. And then John the Baptist says,
“Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” And Andrew and the other disciple go and follow Jesus and say, “Where do you live?” And they follow Jesus. They come back and find
Peter and says, “We think we found the Messiah.” So John the Baptist was discipling the next generation of young men. And he pointed them to Jesus the
Messiah. And just as Elijah we saw two nights ago, he reinvigorated and reestablished the schools of the prophets in ancient Israel in 2 Kings
chapter 2 that originally established by the prophet Samuel. We see that John the Baptist his faith was tested in a prison before his execution. And of the first
Elijah, his faith was tested in the wilderness when he went there with burnout and depression and he asked twice that God would let him die. John
the Baptist lived on a simple diet. It was bread, meat, and water. I’m not sure what the word meat is there, but we’re not going to delve into that too too
much here. Maybe that that’s just meat or vitals in the King James version English. But John the Baptist had a very simple diet and Elijah had a simple diet
of locust and wild honey. And when we used to send missionaries out to Thailand, all those young missionary kids, the student missionaries knew that locust are clean food. And if you go to
the night markets of Thailand, you can buy anything to eat. Some of you nodding your heads. You can have um palm leaves with a with a bunch of roasted house
flies on. Apparently, it’s tastes very nice. Some say it’s like chicken.
Everything tastes like chicken, doesn’t it? But those student missionaries, they knew that locusts and grasshoppers are clean food. And they would post pictures
on social media their first week in Thailand. They’ve gone and got some roasted locust or grasshoppers in the t markets of Thailand. And they chew it.
And you know that’s what they’ve been eating because on every other set of teeth there’s a there’s a leg sticking out from between the teeth there.
John the Baptist had modest clothing. Hear me now. Modest clothing, everybody.
John the Baptist had modest clothing.
Like people aren’t going to remember what he wore when he’s left. They just want to they just remember what he said.
And likewise, our dress should not be calculated to attract attention. It should be attracted to divert attention from us. John the Baptist had modest
clothing as did the original Elijah figure himself. He also had uh modest clothing. And both of uh John the
Baptist died a martyr. That’s where the difference really comes here in in Mark 6:27. His head was chopped off. Whereas
Elijah was taken to heaven in the fiery chariot. So there are many many similarities between John the Baptist
and the Elijah figure who came before the first day of the Lord, the first coming of Jesus Christ. But I want to focus primarily this evening on the end
time Elijah figure. And the text says this, “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day
of the Lord comes.” And that phrase day of the Lord is used. It has really kind of two primary meanings in the Old Testament. When Joel speaks of the day
of the Lord or Isaiah speaks of the day of the Lord, he’s talking about the coming judgment of the Babylonians upon God’s people. But they’re also pointing forward to the end time day of the Lord,
which is when Jesus, the Messiah, comes again, the second coming of Jesus Christ, at which time the the elements of the earth are going to be melted with
heat when Jesus comes again. Now, I’m not so much worried about global warming. I’m worried about global meltdown. When Jesus comes again and the elements are melting under our feet,
that’s when it’s time to be worried.
So, there are two days of the Lord. The first day of the Lord was the coming of Christ or was the judgment by the Babylonians on Judah and Israel. And
then there was the coming of Christ the first time, but the the concept of the day of the Lord also means the second coming of Jesus Christ. And oh yeah,
there’s the text there on the screen.
Second Peter 3:10. It says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.”
Now, Peter is writing after Jesus has already come and gone back to heaven. So he’s not talking about the Babylonian captivity and he’s not talking about the
first coming of Christ. Peter is now talking about the second coming of Christ. This is the third concept of the day of the Lord. Here he says, “But the
day of the Lord will come like a thief and the heavens will pass away with a loud noise and the elements will be dissolved with fire and the earth and
everything in it, everything that is done on it will be dissolved.” Isn’t that a nice thought?
Like burn baby burn.
Like when Jesus comes, this church will burn to the ground. This building when Jesus comes, the church manual will be burnt.
You ever thought about that? It’s true.
When Jesus comes again, every working policy, every constitution, every bylaw,
every human resource manual is going to burn, baby, burn. And the only thing that remains forever is the word of the Lord, which tells you how we should be
dealing with one another. You know, we have a church manual. We have constitutions. We have bylaws. And Jesus made it simply said in all things,
Matthew 7:12, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” And the longer our documents become, it’s a testament to our inability to fulfill
the spirit of what Jesus taught there in Matthew 7:12, the golden rule. But there is a day of the Lord coming, coming as a
thief, and the world is going to melt down when Jesus comes again. And so this this day of the Lord that Malachi is speaking about in Malachi 45 is not just
the promised Elijah figure before Jesus comes the first time. This is the Elijah figure that’s going to come before the second coming of Jesus Christ.
There are two man two two fulfillments of this prophecy of Malachi 4 verse 5.
Elijah uh John the Baptist was the first fulfillment but there is going to be a coming fulfillment when Jesus comes for his own. Hebrews 9:28, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, says this.
So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but
to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Isn’t that a beautiful promise that he’s came for he’s dealt with the
sin problem? On Calvary, Jesus dealt with sin in the showdown in the wilderness. Jesus dealt with Satan. And when Jesus comes the second time, he’s
not coming for those who know he’s coming because Satan knows he’s coming and he is angry because he knows that his time is short. And the demons know that Jesus is coming again. They’re
afraid because the day of judgment is coming their way and they’re afraid that he’s coming again. So Satan knows that Jesus is coming again, but he’s lost.
The demons know that Jesus is coming again, and they are lost. Many of much humanity knows that there is a Jesus figure coming and they are lost, but
Jesus is coming for those who are eagerly waiting for him. That is I don’t just know that he’s coming. My heart is it my it’s not just my head is engaged.
My heart is engaged in this glorious good news that my savior is coming back for me. So Jesus is coming for those who
are engaged that their religion their walk isn’t just a head knowledge. It’s head and heart together. I know he’s coming and my heart is eagerly waiting for him.
Is your religion, is your faith an eager waiting for Christ?
Or is it just a knowledge that Christ is coming?
Do you say, “Lord, I want you to come again, but just hang off a bit. I want to finish my house. I want that holiday
in Hawaii. I want to upgrade my car. I want to use I want to lose a few pounds first. You know, some I want to get married first. I want to have my first
kid. Lord, I want you to come, but just just hang off a bit. Hang off a bit. Hang off a bit.
Have you ever wondered how God looks on planet Earth every night and sees all the suffering under the the cover of darkness?
Imagine that were your child.
And so every night, God looks down and he sees about 9 billion suffering children. You don’t think that God wants to bring this to an end as soon as
possible? Absolutely he does. If it were my child, I’d want him to want him to bring an end to it immediately. Any suffering that my child would have had to go through.
But God is not willing that any should perish. And so he is patient with us.
And he puts off and delays the second coming in order that as many as possible might be saved. Because once he comes again, that’s it. That’s it. So he’s
coming for those who are eagerly waiting for him. We read this in the book evangelism. It says, “In a special sense, seventh adventists have been set
in the world as watchmen and lightbearers. to them has been entrusted the last warning of a perishing world.
On them is shining wonderful light from the word um of God. They’ve been given a work of the most solemn import, the proclamation of the first, second, and
third angel’s messages. There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention. The most solemn truths
ever entrusted to mortals have been given us to proclaim to the world. The proclamation of these truths is to be our work. The world is to be warned and
God’s people are to be true to the trust committed to them. Amen.
And so if you become a member of the seventh the Adventist church or I I prefer called a movement rather than a denomination, God has given you a
God-given role to be a a watchman to proclaim a message to the world.
It’s like saying, “I want to join the Marines, but don’t ever send me into combat.” Now, it doesn’t work that way,
does it? I’d like to learn to be a Navy fighter pilot, but don’t ever put me on an aircraft carrier. It doesn’t quite work that way. When you accept the call
of God to into his end time movement and become a seventh adventist, you are accepting the precious responsibility that goes with it of warning the world
that Jesus is coming soon. And some will be saved and some will be lost. And God wants as many as possible to be saved.
And so it’s a solemn responsibility that that God gives us. He says there she says they are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention.
Now let me ask this. You know, I I I preached a series on the three angels messages recently in church in Georgia,
and people were saying to me, “We never heard a sermon on those three angels messages before.” People talk about it.
They say, “We’ve been given this message to proclaim to the world.” And as I go around churches, I ask people just over potluck. And so, could you tell me what the three angels messages are? They go,
“Well, yeah, that’s what we’re called to proclaim.” Yeah, but what are they?
Well, well, well, well, let me just go and get my Bible pastor. I’ll tell you what the three angels messages are. If you don’t know what these messages are,
this is the whole res on detra for the Adventist movement. There’s a problem.
So brothers and sisters, go home this week and learn what those three angels messages are. Understand they are messages of mercy from a loving father
to a dying world trying to save as many as possible. The first angel’s message is simply this. God is revealed as our creator. The second angel’s message is
this. Satan is exposed as a liar and a murderer. And the third angel’s message is this. Make a choice. God or Satan.
God revealed, Satan exposed. Make a choice. If you’re going to summarize the three angels in very succinct, pathy way, God is revealed as creator who
loves us. Satan is exposed as a murderer and a liar and a deceiver and the source of all error. And thirdly, you got to make a choice between the mark of the
beast or the seal of God. And if you were to summarize the messages, that’s a summary of them all. And we can live those that we can live those messages in
our own lives. And we can invite other people to make the choice as well.
There’s no point preaching just the first angel’s message or just the second angel’s message without saying you need to make a choice which is the third angel’s message.
So in what sense? Let’s take a look now. We got Elijah on the left hand side.
Then you’ve got John the Baptist in the middle and then you’ve got the final Elijah movement. And I’m taking this from elsewhere in scripture. Um, what I’m giving you here is like a summary.
We’re not going to go through every text here, but take the pictures and you can look at the verses for yourself. So, I’m going to look at Elijah first on the left and then I’m going to look at the
final Elijah movement. So, Elijah had a bold message. He condemned Ahab for breaking the first and second commandments. The final Elijah message
movement also has a bold message boldly rebuking governments and corporations worldwide and the papacy that is the antichrist for breaking the fourth
commandment and calling people to reject the mark of the beast.
Ancient uh Elijah back in the old testament he called Israel to repentance and announced a drought. John the Baptist called Israel to repentance and
announced the arrival of the coming of the Lord. The first time the final Elijah movement calls the world and the church to fear God and give glory to him
which is a message of repentance. If you look in revelation chapter 16 when the fl when the plagues are falling upon the
people it says they did not repent they did not repent and give God the glory.
So to when it says to fear God and give him the glory it’s a message of repentance.
Elijah called people to Christ on Mount Carmel. John the Baptist pointed people to Jesus as the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. The final and
movement announces the high priestly ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. Hebrews 9 all the way through that chapter and his second coming. And
it points people to lift their eyes to the high priestly ministry of Christ and the dealing the doing away with sin on planet earth among his people while he’s
engaged in that ministry. And it promises that he is coming again. Elijah was a true prophet. First Kings 18:36.
John the Baptist was the greatest of the prophets, the Elijah figure. And the final Elijah movement is a prophetic movement that will announce the coming
of the Messiah, prepare the way for the coming of the Lord before the great and terrible day of the Lord. Um, as we’ve earlier read, Elijah in the Old
Testament times restored the true worship of God. John the Baptist preached and true preached and called for true worship. The final Elijah
movement in the first angel’s message calls for the true worship of God as the creator, including on the Sabbath day and the fact that we’re all subject to
the moral law, the decalogue or the ten commandments.
Ancient Elijah in the Old Testament upheld a baptism of repentance. John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance and the final Elijah movement baptizes all nations in the name of the father,
the son, and the holy spirit. It’s more than the baptism of repentance.
You are baptized into the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Let’s just dwell on that for a minute.
The name of God, what what’s what’s the um the name of God is his glory. Yes.
And God’s glory is his character.
So when you’re baptized into the character of God,
just if you go under the water, does that water go everywhere in your body? Goes up every nook, every cranny. Yeah.
Yes, it does. Believe you me, when you hold people down, then you bring them up 10 seconds later, they know, they know the water’s gone into every nook and
cranny. If you are baptized into the character of God, it means that God’s character, which is agape love, um,
infiltrates every nook and cranny of their life and their character means you are baptized in the love of God.
You’re not just baptized in his name,
that you belong to him, that you are now part of his kingdom. You belong to him.
You are redeemed. You are now being sanctified. But the character of God reaches into every nook and cranny of your being. And you come up to newness
of life because the love of God has changed you completely. So the Eli final Elijah movement baptizes all nations in the name of the father, son, and the
holy spirit. Both Elijah, the first Elijah figure, John the Baptist and the end time Elijah movement all engage in baptism. The first time Elijah, he ran
before the king, that is Ahab coming down from Mount Carmel. Carmel, John the Baptist, he prepared the way of the Lord. Prepare you the way of the Lord.
Luke 3:4. And the uh final Elijah movement prepares the world for the coming Messiah and the hour and the hour
of judgment. That is the first angel’s message.
The first Elijah figure called the people to choose truth, that is Jehovah,
over a lie, that is Baal. John the Baptist, the first Elijah figure in in the New Testament, he called the people to choose truth, that is Jesus Christ or to stick with the lies of their time,
the false messiahs of Judaism or cold institutional religion of the Phariseaic um and the temple system. And the final
Elijah movement, they also called people to make a choice to choose the seal of God or the mark of the beast. That is the third angel’s message there. Then
you come to the fact that they all pray for rain one way or another. The first Elijah prayed for literal rain on the top of Mount Carmel to end the drought.
First Kings 18, the end of that chapter.
John the Baptist prophesied about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He said he when he comes, speaking of Christ, he will baptize with holy with the Holy
Spirit and with fire. And the final Elijah movement, they pray for the outpouring of the latter rain. We find that in Zechariah 10:1 and Joel 2:28-29.
Then we see that the first Elijah sparked revival and reformation. First Kings 18:39, they said, “The Lord or Jehovah, he is God. He is God.” The
people made a choice. There was a revival and they wiped out the prophets of Baal and Asher. We never had had a TV when I was growing up at home.
I loved the books of Judges and Kings.
Wiping out the prophets of Baal sounded really good to me as a teenage boy. I’m just being honest with you, okay?
But the Elijah sparked revival and reformation. John the Baptist sparked revival and reformation. The crowds flocked to the River Jordan to be
baptized and Herod was afraid to deal with him because he knew the people considered him to be a prophet. And the final Elijah movement will also spark a
revival within the church of God. That is a Leodysian message. Revelation 3:14-22. So the church is no longer lukewarm.
The Leodysian church at the end of time,
the message is given to the angel of the church of Leodysia. All seven messages are given to the angel of the church of Ephesus and Smyrna and Thotyra and
Philadelphia and so forth. And when we look at Revelation chapter one, the last verse in the hand of Christ, there is the seven stars which are the seven angels of the churches. Remember that.
And look in almost any Adventist commentary and you say those are the leaders of the churches. So the church the message to the church of Leodysa is
more technically correct to say it is a message to the leaders of the church of Leodosa.
It’s delayed here in general, but it’s particularly for the leaders that you are wealthy and increased in goods and you think you need nothing. But in a
church where the leaders have gone astray and have a cold institutional self-sufficient form of religion, Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the do at the
door and knock.” And as pastor Bailey Schmidt was, we were talking about this last night. He said the message there is that in the end time church, Christ is
outside of the church. That’s why this church is lost.
It’s he is outside the church. And if the leaders have gone wealthy and cold and self-satisfied and they think they have need of nothing, the promise of
Christ is if I knock on the door and if any man, that is any person in this room tonight, hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and I will sub with him. That is in a lost end time church,
you can still be saved as an individual.
And so the final Elijah movement prays for the outpouring of the latter reign.
And they also spark a revival within the Leodysian church which is no longer lukewarm but it is now hot for Christ.
Hot for Christ means that her that her profession of faith and the way she lives match up. If you are leodian it
means you profess a hotness for Christ but your works are stone cold to Christ.
And God doesn’t that’s that’s hypocrisy and teenagers sense that a mile off. And to be cold for Christ means you don’t profess any faith in him and your life
reflects doesn’t reflect the lordship of Christ in any way. But to be hot for Christ means I profess a faith in Christ and my life reflects authentically the
lordship of Christ in every dimension of my life.
And so we move on here. We say that Elijah was persecuted by a woman that was Jezebel. John the Baptist was
persecuted by a woman that was Herodiius.
And the end time Elijah movement will be persecuted by a fallen woman that is Babylon in harmony with the kings of the world. You see the text there,
Revelation 12:17 and 84. Then you see that the the original Elijah was under a death sentence from Jezebel. First Kings
19:2. John the Baptist was under a death sentence from King Herod. Mark 6:27. And the final Elijah movement will likewise
faith a death face a death penalty in the final crisis of conscience over the mark of the beast. So there are many many parallels between the original
Elijah, the first Elijah figure John the Baptist and the final Elijah movement just before the final and the second great and terrible day coming day of the
Lord. We saw that Elijah trained young men to continue the work at the schools of the prophets. Already mentioned that we also saw that John the Baptist
discipled young men. He had his disciples and he sent them to follow Jesus. He pointed them to Christ. He didn’t say follow me. When the Messiah
came, he said go and follow Jesus. And at the end of time, the end time Elijah movement will be a movement of committed
disciples. We heard today say about disciplem movements. Yes, the final movement will be a disciplem movement of followers of Christ from every nation,
tribe, language and people. It will not just be clergy. It will be brothers and sisters in Christ together. the priesthood of all believers.
We then see that Elijah were his faith was tested in the wilderness.
He was sent off to the widow to by the by the brook Cherith.
John the Baptist his faith was tested in prison. He sent a message to say to Jesus, “Are you the Messiah that is to come or should we be looking somewhere
else?” He had his doubts. The final Elijah movement, their faith is tested in the wilderness during that final satanic persecution.
The original Elijah we mentioned before had a simple diet of locusts and wild honey. Maybe next year, Pastor Milm, we
should offer fried locusts and wild honey for the We see how committed people are to the Elijah movement. So we’ll give a diet of
locust and wild honey. John the Baptist had a simple diet by the brook Cherith.
It was a morsel of bread and a morsel of p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p piece of drink of water. You know the the word cherth, it means to be cut down or cut off.
And when God says, “Get thee up from here and cross the Jordan and go to the brook Cherith, for I have commanded the ravens there to feed thee.” Elijah just
had the most spectacular confrontation with with with Ahab of any prophet. And rather than you, he could have said to
God, “Lord, let me just stay for the drought. let me go on a preaching tour of Israel and let everybody know that that when you say so the drought’s going to be ended. And God says, “No, no,
Elijah.” He said, “Because that the the the message is there’ll be no rain in Israel except by my word. That you’re not going to get in the way of my work,
Elijah. The people of God are going to learn to listen for the voice of God,
not the voice of Elijah. So, you’re going to go to a place called Cherith,
where you’re going to be cut off and cut down, and you’re going to learn dependence upon God.” Because how much food can ravens bring you? Let’s be honest here.
like he didn’t have a station wagon bringing back 20 pounds of food from Walmart.
He was being fed with whatever ravens bring. Those were mortals and they were an unclean bird.
He was learning that he was to live um literally um he was going to be fed mouth mouth by mouth by the grace of God. And then God says to him, “You’ve
had your time in the wilderness and the water has run dry and the brooks gone and I know all about that.” He says,
“Now get thee at once.” The Hebrew is exactly the same as the commands go to the chariots. Get thee at once to Zarapath, for I’ve commanded a widow there to fe feed thee. And the word Zarapath means a furnace.
I’m going to refine you because you start this chapter as a man of Tish uh Elijah the Tishbite, a man of Gilead. And it’s only after being cut
down and cut off and going through a spiritual furnace that at the end of the chapter, you’re a man of God. You’re now ready for the showdown on Mount Carmel.
And sometimes we get called into ministry by God. and he allows us to go through those hard yards precisely because he knows there’s a showdown
coming in the future and he’s got to mold us and shape us and burn off the fluff and dross of this western world so we’re ready for what’s coming our way
you know Rocky Baloa is that his name Rocky the boxer did he train before he got in the ring absolutely would he have
won the fight had he not trained well he would have because it was Hollywood but you know what I mean okay because he had an American flag and the other guy was an evil Soviet guy So,
of course, he’s going to win. All right.
Maybe in Rocky 5, but anyway, um he trained before he could face his battle.
Do you not think that God’s people are going to have to train and prepare for the final crisis? We’re just going to kind of we’re not going to ease into it.
And our lazy boys, brothers and sisters.
There’s a time and place for spiritual discipline and the memorization of scripture and learning to go without and learning to trust God rather than myself
and learning to sit in silence before God and learning to recognize his voice except by my word sayaith the Lord to Ahab. We need to learn to live except by
my word and to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit. And so Elijah and John the Baptist are very very simple here.
Um they both um they both had a simple diet. And the final Elijah movement also has a health message. We we call it a simple diet and we bear a health
message. We we emphasize the interdependence of physical health, emotional health and spiritual health.
There is a close connection. The three are all related. You know, as I listened to a series of lectures last year on the relationship between depression and the
gut, I learned that um serotonin, which we used to think was produced mostly in the brain, is mostly produced in the gut.
And if you and if you put processed food into your gut, you’re going to have bacteria there that that that crave processed food. And you’re going to dramatically lower your serotonin
production. It’s going to lead to depression. And if you want a healthy gut, you have to eat healthy food of of all colors. You know, KFC,
McDonald’s, no. All colors. That’s a joke, everybody. Okay. My wife gives me a very healthy diet.
You know, we get all colors of the rainbow. And I know I better read it all.
It’s good for me. Elijah had modest clothing. 2 Kings 18. John the Baptist had modest clothing. Mark 1:6. And the
final Elijah movements. They also have a message of of dress reform. We don’t talk about dress reform. There was a a
dear old saint on the West Coast called Gwen Shortter. Maybe some of you know her. She runs a ministry called Homewoodbound Publishing. And she writes on dress reform.
And we are called to dress reform as well. We are not called to dress in the fashions of this world, but we are called to dress with modesty in ways
that glory our creator rather than glory ourselves. And we find those passages in Ephesians 2:4 and 1 Timothy 2:9. And
then finally, the final comparison between these three movements. You got Elijah was taken to heaven. John the Baptist died a martyr, but we believe he will be taken to heaven. And the final
Elijah movement, it reflects what happens to Elijah. That is some will be taken to heaven when Christ comes again.
And it also reflects what happens to John the Baptist. Some will die, some of them off persecution and as martyrs. But that we have the promise that we will all be caught up together to meet our
Lord in the air in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 there. What a beautiful passage of scripture that is. So there are clear parallels between the first uh
Elijah in first kings 17:18 and 19, the first Elijah figure figure John the Baptist for the first coming of the day of the Lord and between and with the end
time Elijah movement that bears a message to the world calling them to the true worship of the living God in the closing work of God on the earth.
The standard of his law will again be exalted. False religion may prevail.
Iniquity may abound. The love of many may wax cold. The cross of Calvary may be lost sight of and darkness like the paw of death may spread over the world.
The whole force of the popular current may be turned against the truth. Plot after plot may be formed to overthrow the people of God. But in the hour of
greatest peril, hear this now, brothers and sisters. The God of Elijah will raise up human instrumentalities to bear a message that will not be silenced. You
say amen and amen. God will have human instrumentalities. He’s not going to finish the work just through angels.
He’s looking for men and women and boys and girls who are willing to bear a message to the world that despite the unpopular current, unpopular thinking
and the poll of death that falls across our world and plot after plot after plot being raised against those who proclaim the everlasting gospel. God is going to
raise up human instrumentalities to proclaim this end time message. It may be me and it may be you. By God’s grace, it will be all of us.
In the popular cities of the land and in the places where men have gone to the greatest lengths and speaking against the most high, the voice of stern rebuke will be heard.
Boldly will men of God’s appointment denounce the union of the church with the world. Earnestly will they call upon men and women to turn from the
observance of a man-made institution to the observance of the true Sabbath. So God is looking for men with courage,
a holy boldness for God. When we lead people into the body of Christ, we’re not to teach them that when you are baptized into the body of Christ,
everything’s going to be easy running from that moment onwards. When you baptize people into the body of Christ, you say there’s going to be persecution.
Your faith is going to be tested. Your faith is going to be denounced. You’re going to be derided and mocked. You may lose your job. You may be canceled. You may be banned. You may be disbarred. You
may be deliced. That is the cost of following Jesus today. And when we bring people into the kingdom of God, we need to say there’s going to be persecution
within it. Why? Because all who lead a godly life will face what in this world?
Persecution. And in the final time, that persecution will be like never before.
Because in the final crisis before Christ again in Mark chapter 4, the parable of the sewer and revelation chapter 19, the the picture of Jesus
coming again that put in the sickle for the harvest of the grain is ripe and put in the harvest the grapes because the the harvest is ripe there as well. That
before Jesus comes again, there’ll be a harvest of righteousness on this world.
Harvest or a flowering a flowering of wickedness upon this world like we’ve never seen before. We talk about polarization state. It ain’t nothing compared with what’s going to happen
before Jesus comes again. There will be no there will be no hint of alliance or or overlap or any need for a union between the righteous and the wicked.
And that’s why God’s anti- movement should not be in a relation the nations of this world. Should not be subordinating our consciences to the
what the world’s governments decide is is is a liberty of conscience issue. We should not be saying um we should not be saying we support the universal
declaration of human rights from the United Nations when articles 29.2 and 29.3 are very clear that all of your human rights including your right to
refer to religion to have a freedom of conscience to to have a religion not to have religion or to change a religion all of that is subject to what the
governments of the world consider necessary for quote the general welfare of a democratic society.
And we have subjugated God’s end time movement to the godless powers of this world. And so prophecy kings says the voice of stern rebuke will be heard.
That is the Elijah message is not just given to the world. It’s that the church needs to hear the Elijah message as well. That we should not be in any union with this world.
Why? Because it leads to persecution and the observance of the mark of the beast.
The voice of stern rebuke will be heard.
They may cancel you, but they only cancel you because they’ve heard what you said.
They don’t cancel you if they don’t hear what you say.
They only cancel you because they’ve heard what you said. And cancel culture,
I was going to share this down in the hallway. Cancel culture is never is never activated to defend truth.
Truth is the first casualty of war.
Cancel culture is perpetrated by the powerful to protect the position and prestige of the powerful visibly the powerless. The the poor or the powerless
never cancel the powerful. It’s only the powerful who cancel the poor and the powerless.
And the poor the the rich and the powerful and those in position with prestige and power and money. They are the ones who perpetrate cancel culture not because they’re interested in truth
but they’re going to they want to perpetuate and protect their position,
their preeminence and their dominance in the church and in society.
So cancel culture when cancel culture comes your way it tells you that number one truth is no longer the issue. This
is about protecting power and you are a threat to the power of the powerful.
When cancel counsel comes your way, you need to decide, are you going to become either bitter or better? You’re going to pray for a Christlike character to get
through this and represent persecution as Christ went through his, or you’re going to become bitter in the process. Then they say, “You see, we told you so.
Look who he really is.” When you go through council culture, you discover who your true brothers really are. You discover that some brothers uh some
brothers are born to you and some brothers are brothers in arms. And you discover who your true friends are before the final crisis. Don’t consider it a curse to go through cancel culture.
Consider it kind of a blessing because it reveals to you who your friends really are. And it forces you to dig be dig deep and understand what I really
believe and where I base this on scripture. And I’m willing to stand for this. So cancel culture brothers and sisters is not the end of the road. View it as like a testing ground.
It’s a privilege to go through testing testing and cancellation. It’s not a bad thing.
The voice of stern rebuke, says sister white, will be heard in prophets and kings. There will be a final Elijah movement bearing a final Elijah message preparing the world for the coming king.
So, what are we going to say as we draw this to a close here tonight? My wife said to me, “Don’t preach for a couple of hours tonight.” So, I’m not going to preach for a couple of hours tonight. I
chopped out a whole bunch of stuff. Some of some of you are clapping. I’m not sure if you’re clapping my decision to cut it down or her counsel to me, sister, but uh her counsel to me. Oh,
well, at least you’re honest, sister. Thank you very much.
We saw last night, two nights ago, this verse, Ezekiel 22:30 says, “And I sought for anyone among them who would repair
the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.” May that not be true in our generation.
God is still looking today for those who will repair the wall and who will stand in the breach. And in the final crisis of history, God will have a people. And
there are two characteristics we’re going to draw out in our conclusion here. First is there going to be a faithful remnant. Joel 2:32 speaking
about the coming day of the Lord says this. And it shall come to pass that whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount
Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance as the Lord hath said and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.
That is when the world is falling apart and persecution is brought upon the people of God. God will have a remnant to get through those final crisis. There
will be a faithful remnant. The second Christ characteristic of these people, they’re going to be a peculiar people.
Titus 2:14 says this, who gave himself for us, speaking of Christ, that he might redeem us from all iniquity. How much iniquity? Okay, we never discussed
victory over sin. But the more you look at the New Testament, you can’t avoid the conclusion God wants us to have victory over sin. And if we’re going to have if he redeems us from all iniquity,
that means he’s bought us back from slavery to sin, he will purify us unto himself as a what kind of people? A
peculiar people, zealous for of good works. So God is looking for a faithful remnant and a peculiar people. In the
final crisis, God will have an Elijah movement bearing the last Elijah message for all of humanity. Prophets and Kings
describes that final movement in this simple sentence. She said, “God calls for men like Elijah, like Nathan, and John the Baptist. Men who will bear his
message with faithfulness regardless of the consequences. Men who will speak the truth what? Bravely, though it called for the sacrifice of all they have.”
Elijah stood tall in his day and a nation was changed. John the Baptist stood tall in his day and history was changed. And when God’s final Elijah
movement stands tall today, eternity will be changed for multitudes. I want to be part of that movement. Don’t you?
I want to be part of that movement. Now,
I started out on Wednesday night with a quote from Winston Churchill. Some of you remember that. I’m going to give a paraphrase here.
Winston Churchill was a great orator.
And late May 1914,
the armies of Nazi Germany had conquered their way across all of Northern Europe.
Uh the British Expeditionary Force was cornered in a littleport town called Dunkirk. They herded over 380,000
British soldiers onto the beach and then Winston call Winston Churchill issued a call. anybody that’s got a boat and
thousands of little boats sailed across the channel, day sailors. They sailed under the attacks from the German Luftvafer, the air force, and they
loaded on those boys and they brought back 380,000 men out of the beaches of Dunkerk.
And what was a great military defeat was suddenly a great morale boosting victory. and commenting the next day in
Parliament on June the 4th. Churchill gave a speech in Parliament to challenge the nation not to yield to the tyranny
of fascism. And he he had these famous words. He says, “We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall
fight on the seas and the oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may
be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.
Now, that sounds like a family holiday to you. I don’t know. So, I’ve paraphrased it here.
Final final message from me here tonight of this wonderful camp meeting here,
this convention. I’m going to paraphrase the words of Winston Churchill.
He had a way with words. It said that he mobilized the English language and sent it into war. He rallied a nation. So I
basically have taken the last four paragraphs of what he said and I have amended slightly and this is how it would read. I myself have full
confidence that if all God’s faithful remnant do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements
are made, we shall prove ourselves as in all previous generations able to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. By God’s grace,
we will ride out the storm of the final conflict of courage of conscience. We will outlive the menace of tyranny if necessary for years, if necessary alone,
even with every earthly means of support removed. That is our resolve. We disciples who love Jesus and keep his
commandments. That is the will of our heavenly father and his flock here on earth. And even though large swaves of humanity and many old and famous
denominations have fallen in the grip of the antichrist and the odious apparatus of papal supremacy, we shall not flag nor fail. Hallelujah.
We shall go on to the end. We shall spread the everlasting gospel through Bible ways Bible studies through personal witnessing and fervent prayer
ministries. We shall proclaim God’s love and mercy on the airwaves and on the internet. We shall witness with growing confidence and growing strength in small
groups and social media. We shall defend our faith whatever the cost may be. We shall witness in the cities. We shall witness in the rural communities. We
shall win souls in our homes, in our schools, and our workplaces. We shall witness wherever and whenever the Holy Spirit opens divine doors of opportunity
for us. We shall never yield our love for Christ. And even if which for a moment I do not believe our local
congregations were to be overwhelmed and fall into apostasy that our brothers and sisters beyond the seas armed with the
word of God and guarded by God’s holy angels would carry on the struggle until in God’s good time the heavenly new
world in all its power and might will step forth to the rescue and liberation of the old.
Those words were spoken and the tide of war turned in World War II.
Men and women accepted the call to stand in the breach and to not yield to the tyranny of it or that era. We are facing
a coming tyranny in our world. We hear the drums calling for Sunday laws, Sunday legislation, Sunday lockdowns,
energy Sundays, family Sundays. We hear this throughout the land. We know what’s coming. Nobody here can claim they were
not aware of what was coming round the corner.
And God is calling tonight for men and women like Elijah, Nathan and John the Baptist, like Esther and Mary Magdalene and Hannah and Mary. Men and women who
will bear the everlasting gospel, a message with faithfulness regardless of personal consequences.
Men and women tonight who pledge to speak the truth bravely, to have a holy boldness for God. though it called for
the sacrifice of all they have. I want to be in that group, don’t you? If you want to be in that group, stand and we’ll have a prayer of consecration here
tonight. God will have a final faithful movement. Shall we pray?
Heavenly Father,
we stand in awe of how prophecy works out over the course of history.
Father, we’re amazed at how you raised men and women throughout salvation history with a message at a certain point of time. And now, Lord, in your
mysterious providence, you are looking for a final generation of men like Elijah, Nathan, and John the Baptist,
who will speak the truth boldly, who will speak the truth lovingly, who will speak the truth regardless of personal consequence.
We’re asking tonight, Father, that we as a people will know know what that message is and that we will love the message that you’ve given us and that we
will share it with grace and with truth and we will speak with a holy boldness for you. We pray that just as the Sanhedrin took note that those bold
disciples were men and women who’ spent time with Jesus. We’re asking tonight,
Father, that the world will take note that we here in Georgia have spent time with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and we’re his ambassadors to a dying and a fallen world. So, Father,
tonight we ask that we will become we will be part of that final Elijah movement. Father, give us words on our lips. Give us divine appointments. When
we are not sure what to say, we claim the promise of Mark 13 that words will be given us from on high. Father, may we study deeply that we may shine brightly
for you. Uh give us a boldness, a courage that we’ve never had before.
Father, take away the attraction of the things of this world, the toys and bless that occupy our minds. And take give us victory over those besetting sins. And
Father, may we be wholly consecrated and devoted and committed to you and your kingdom and your lost children living as our neighbors and across the street.
We’re praying, Father, that we will not fail you in this final hour. So, Father, fill us tonight with your Holy Spirit.
Watch over us with your angels and may the love of Jesus be seen in our eyes,
heard in our voices, and heard in everything that we may share. Father, we commit our lives into your hands tonight. Uh we ask Lord that the powers
of haten of Satan will tremble at what is happening here tonight. And Father, I pray that there’ll be rejoicing in heaven tonight because they know that
from this meeting on, from every disciple whose head is bowed here tonight, that souls will be won for eternity because we were faithful
members of the final Elijah movement. In your holy name, we humbly ask. Amen.